SIX MONTHS ago, the operators of the King America Finishing plant quietly switched to bottled water for drinking, as opposed to drawing water from their on-site wells near the Ogeechee River.

This decision is all the public needs to know about pollution from the Screven County textile plant and safety.

The plant’s bosses said the state Environmental Protection Division suggested the change until the wells have been tested. The head of the EPD denies it.

Who’s right? Who’s wrong?

It makes no difference.

If plant workers and their bosses don’t think it’s safe to drink the water from that area, then neither should anyone else.

And neither should the state Environmental Protection Division approve the proposed discharge permit that King America is seeking.

It’s too permissive. While rural Georgia needs jobs, this is one time where the state must stand its ground and say “no” unless new, anti-pollution restrictions are added. The long-term health of the Ogeechee River and the people who live and own property around it is more important than a few hundred jobs that pay from $25,000-$30,000 a year.

According to information on file with the EPD, even the county property taxes the plant pays to support schools and other public services is minimal: Just $102,552 from 2006 through 2010. That’s only $20,510 a year. So much for the argument that this plant is a boon to the tax digest.

In fact, if you consider the property taxes in surrounding counties, this plant might be a net loser in terms of revenue. That’s because some people who own property along the Ogeechee downriver from the plant want their taxes reduced, as they believe discharges from the King America plant make their land less valuable. They make an excellent case.

Denying the proposed permit seems the public’s consensus, too. On Tuesday night, about 100 people attended a public hearing at Effingham County High School in Springfield, conducted by the EPD, to get opinions on the permit proposal. That’s an impressive number, given that these events are largely for show.

It’s 99.9 percent certain that the EPD will issue this permit. That’s what Jane Hendricks, the EPD’s program manager, all but said Tuesday. “Please understand that under the law EPD has a very limited ability to deny the permit,” she said, adding that special conditions that can trigger a denial don’t apply in this case.

The EPD is part of Gov. Nathan Deal’s executive branch, which has been shockingly too permissive. The EPD has the authority to make the Chicago-based owners of this plant reduce discharges. But it doesn’t have the backbone to do it.

The company’s high-powered Atlanta lawyers argue that South Georgians are perfectly safe with what their clients are doing — something you’d expect them so say, as they are paid big bucks. But the governor and his EPD shouldn’t swallow this bilge.

Top officials in Atlanta have turned a blind eye to this part of Georgia. Local lawmakers have been worthless, choosing not to play hardball with the governor. At least the public knows where its elected officials stand.

This is a complete waste of ink and paper at this point. But we encourage the EPD to deny this proposed permit. Then it should come back with something that’s worthy of a public agency charged with protecting the environment.

In the meantime, for all those drinking bottled water at King America, bottoms up.

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Water levels are an important factor in any river where dumping is allowed. Coal and nuclear plants take hundreds of millions of gallons of water from Georgia rivers and lakes every day. The water that is returned is at a higher temperature than when removed with uncertain elements added, and in the case of nuclear use, up to 60% is simply evaporated.

If our EPD cannot monitor and enforce regulations on a rather small company like King America Finishing, then how do we expect them to deal with Southern Company and Georgia Power??????

I grew up along a river that was "dead". There were no fish, it stank, no one would swim in it or boat in it. Then the people "got religion" about the environment. The decided to husband the environment rather than just exploit it. Anything other than storm water had to be treated and the result of that did not go in the river. The river now has fish, marina's, and people enjoy living along it.
Why would any rational people, who love the place they live, and the rivers that run through it, throw their waste or allow others to throw their waste in a river that is for all to enjoy?

Do you think that someone is picking on you? Repost the comment and see if it stays. This web site seems to have a lot of problems which include things getting lost, too many pop-ups, too many take over ads and such. along with that a lot of garbage prob. gets thrown into the mix by the site users. Try reposting your comment. I either find your comments informative or very funny. Next time, just repost, if its worth your time, and lets see what happens.

Lets hope we haven't unleashed a demon. Just think what it would be like if Timo starts running wild with reposting by cut and paste. He could cause the whole site to crash. Then again, that might be kinda funny and interesting to see how the PC police handle it.

You rightly take issue with King America, based in Chicago, dumping toxins into the Ogeechee River and then you accept the public voice being quashed in this childish KKK ritual of keeping the area dumb and voiceless. It is not cool and it is significant. The site owners could remedy the software issue if a user account or accounts are being routinely used to quash commentary. Something is not right or honest in this arrangement, and I see no reason to accept bad food, toxic environment and loss of free speech on important quality of life issues posted on a completely controlled machine (a website), no less. And it is the same thing, garbage commentary about "clowncil" is allowed to stay and if you post anything of real information, often it is disappeared. If comments were humans, humans would be getting disappeared, too. Someone said that in Savannah "many things are not what they seem." Why the allergy to quality of life here?

I think this King America issue has your attention, as it should. I encourage you to take the commentary situation seriously, because otherwise the thieves and fakes and exploiters keep winning, and there are plenty of them here. One reason so many official things seem bumbling is that this town runs off good talent once they see the habit of local exploitation. Most self respecting professionals react to "sell the home and get out of here."

Take the comments disappearing issue seriously if you want any better quality of life than the big rock rolling downhill upon you.

And to the paper, ask your software person to localize what accounts are responsible for sport-deleting comments on a regular basis.

Anybody that takes this place seriously is (in my opinion).....a fool.

Remember that the next time you go swimming in the Ogeechee River and the next day you have a rash and bumps on your skin, much less who wants to fish there now? And like this area really needs declining property values. What the court should do is make them do clean manufacturing. The bit about them drinking bottled water in their plant is crazy. Look at how you are being treated by a company from Chicago, Illinois from where the politician Obama does not even know what cities or ports are on the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean.

I've been around the world many times, worked and played in a lot of different countries and interacted with a lot of dif. people. Every country in the world keeps a tight control on its citizens speech. Its just that now it is becoming more obvious here in the USA. The governments goal is to let the citizens know as little as possible and to lead them away from the truth. It is getting worse here, but as I said, every country does it and the only way for it to end is open revolt. But, just as soon as a new government takes control, the cycle starts again. Bear with it, some big changes are coming here its just a matter of time. Don't flake out, keep your cool and calm down. You can't get anywhere by flying off the wall. You sometimes have good input, but then suddenly fly into a rant unrelated to the subject under consideration. When you do that, you loose us. Keep cool and work the system.

Maybe if the other 150,000 residents here contacted the governor's office, the congress representatives, and the state regulatory agency as I have done to bring the King America toxic polluting to the fore, it would have more traction. You underestimate the role of the main paper in voice and commentary. Good point about a class action suit from the property owners on the Ogeechee River. I think it is possible a few of them have already been paid, although does anyone recall a feature story on it? I think it has been mentioned here and there. There are only so many hours in the day to keep up with this stuff, which again brings to the fore the wasted time of typing commentary and have it disappeared for sport. I for one, do not accept it. I think the paper should manage their comment site by determining what accounts are used to make excessive comment deletion.

Now close your eyes and think: image: formaldehyde being dumped into river. You ever work with formaldehyde, do you even know what it is?

I think that's a large part of the beer, bam-de-baa, 33, that we drank in Nam. You could get off the plane in Saigon, start your 7 day R & R, with that beer, drink it the whole time your there and stay at a level drunk for the whole 7 days. From having seen what it does to people who are exposed to it for ext. long periods of time, it not only will pickle your body, but your mind also. You think poss. that might be the problem with a lot of people in this area? Their getting over exposed to formaldehyde?

I am not a site administrator, I do not have access to the screen with the information you request. Do you suggest handing out pamphlet on street corner? Or maybe a box to stand on in the town commons? That is what they do in Britain.

Thank you for the affirmation. I assure you that in many cities there are a parcel of professional type persons posting on sites like this and bringing a lot to the table. At the very least, it is a means to be informed about things. Hey, I have to go figure out how to aerate a pond / put in a timer and build a venturi out of pvc. This is some fish-stressin' weather.